More countries are beginning to ban smoking within certain types of buildings. There was a lot of resistance to smoking bans, particularly from bar and pub owners who felt they would be losing business if their patrons wouldn’t be allowed to smoke. While it may be true that some businesses suffered, others did well because non-smokers now could come in and be comfortable.
But do the bans affect health? Are people healthier because their access to smoking may be less than it was before. According to researchers, yes.
In a study, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, North American …read more

A new study says that defibrillators may not work as well for women as they do for men. In fact, women have not been tested on the product as much as men, either. As we know, men and women are different, and testing needs to be done on each equally. Too often men are the ones that try out new health products or procedures, only to find later that they don’t work as well on women.

New research says that “implantable defibrillators to protect against deadly heart rhythms do not prevent deaths in women with advanced heart failure.” …read more

Chocolate lovers have another reason to celebrate their favorite treat: eating chocolate after a first heart attack may actually improve your survival rate.
Researchers in Sweden followed over 1000 men and women who had experienced a first-ever heart attack. Besides the usual types of questions asked in health questionnaires, these patients were asked about eating habits, including chocolate consumption.
Three months after their discharge from the hospital, the patients were examined and then they were followed by researchers for the next eight years. According to the study findings, which were published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine, …read more

Avandia (rosiglitazone), a medication for people with type 2 diabetes, has been the subject of studies evaluating its safety and the results aren’t what Glaxo (the manufacturer) had hoped for. According to researchers in Toronto, Canada, elderly people who take Avandia may have an increased risk of heart failure and death.
The researchers didn’t, however, find the same results that American researchers found two years earlier, which suggested that Avandia also increased the risk of heart attacks. The Canadian researchers found no difference between patients who took Avandia and another type of medication, Actos (pioglitazone), and the rate of heart attacks …read more

From 1999 to 2006 the death rate of heart attacks and strokes fell about 30%. A cardiologist from UCLA said this is one of the outstanding achievements of modern history.
Even with this amazing news, the death count for Americans in 2006 from heart attacks and strokes was still at 829,072.
On an average one American dies from heart disease every 37 seconds.
A study on cholesterol levels in men men over 40 and women over 60 showed a 2% improvement. The same study showed no improvement in younger people.
We also have a rise in children with high cholesterol, due to their …read more

This made me sit up and take notice since I used to work nights in the hospital…
The graveyard shift is the worst time to call code blue, a new study finds. Patients who go into cardiac arrest while in the hospital are more likely to die if it happens after 11 p.m., when staffing may be lower or patients are watched less closely.
The ER is the only place that there was no difference in death rates. Among day shifts in all other units hospital wide the success rate of patients that cardiac arrested was 20% and the night shift …read more

I have a very exciting update to share with you! This is not groundbreaking research but I am so happy I just have to share. I wrote about the Nintendo Wii being used as therapy for recovering stroke and cardiac patients last week, and shared my strong want for one of these fabulous little game players. Well, guess what? My brother in law found one today at normal price and offered it up! So yup I am going to get myself in my caravanarama with cash in hand and travel southwest to his house and pick it up.
Oh boy, …read more

Is this for real?
Heart attacks could leap by 25 per cent if England crash out of the World Cup on penalties this weekend, say medical experts.
And not only that, health experts claim “soccer stress” could lead to unhealthy and risky behaviors:

Binge-drinking
Eating fast food
Increased smoking
Relationship stress
Mood swings
Aggression
Depression

I have seen firsthand the gloom and doom that accompanies the loss of a football game. Then there’s the urban myth of increased wife beating on Superbowl Sundays. What other side effects of sporting disappointment would you add to the list above?
More on World Cup-related heart health.
Lifestyle Extra, June 23, 2006

Eli Lilly osteoporosis drug, Evista aka raloxifene, appears to reduce the risk of invasive breast cancer but does not have any protective effects on the heart. There were some signs in previous clinical trials that Evista was capable of reducing LDL cholesterol, but a recent study of 10,000 women did not show the same effects.
There was no difference in overall death or cardiovascular death among women who took Evista compared with those who took a placebo. The company said there was an increase in stroke mortality, although the overall incidence was low.
Sometimes it seems to me that testing to …read more

Via e-mail yesterday, I learned about the Association for Eradication of Heart Attack. In June, their main project – S.H.A.P.E., Screening for Heart Attack Prevention and Education – will publish an executive summary of the SHAPE task force report in the American Journal of Cardiology.
Primarily, they are proposing to identify close to 65 million asymptomatic individuals vulnerable to first heart attacks by detecting subclinical atherosclerosis and documenting risk factors.

Screen all men aged 45 and older, women aged 55 and older
Test for atherosclerosis by determining coronary calcium score via CT scan or carotid artery intima-media thickness via ultraound …read more